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The soil food web that will point the way to many orchard answers quite generously includes us humans within this symbiosis of place. In honor of one my most influential mentors, I would like to revisit and give reverence to the work and teachings of the late Michael Phillips, the original teacher of regenerative orcharding.
Food Tank is highlighting 20 books for young readers that will inspire them to think more deeply about food. These activity books, cookbooks, and stories celebrate diverse foodways and farming practices from across the world, uplift the power of community, and celebrate all that pollinators do for global food and farming systems.
The world is increasingly recognizing the value of sustainable food systems, and organic agriculture plays a vital role in this movement. This translates to healthier food and a healthier environment and reduces reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. For the FY25 budget, NIFA is suggested a $3.5
On April 10th, Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) hosted a field day at Heartwood Farms in Linden, CA with farmers Franz Eilers and Emma Wade to discuss all things compost and pest management on their biologically-integrated walnut and cherry orchards. Franz and Emma explain their composting process.
Thousands of pounds of fruit go to waste every year while more than half a million area residents struggle with food insecurity. What if these food-insecure households— more than 13 percent of the county’s population —could access the abundant provision literally dropping from trees in their neighbors’ backyards?
Across the city of Atlanta, Georgia, many organizations are working to build a food system that centers community wellbeing with the health of the planet. On April 14, Food Tank is heading to Atlanta to partner with Spelman College and Emory University for the Summit “ Empowering Eaters: Access, Affordability, and Healthy Choices.”
Here, growers are making fresh kokoleka, or chocolate in lelo Hawaii (Hawaiian language), through mindful agricultural practices: creating their own soil and compost, contracting with locals, and using organic fertilizer. From seed to orchard, the cacao growing process can take up to two years.
Because I was sheltering in an Airbnb with no food or water, I had no choice but to find my way home to Morganton, North Carolina, about 60 miles east of Asheville. Food, water, fuel, electricity, and communication networks were all either nowhere to be found, or extremely scarce.
To help you find a winemaker, distiller, or brewer to support, Food Tank is highlighting 20 producers and programs bringing sustainable sips to glasses around the world. The company composts all fruit scraps, tea, herbs, cultures, and paper towels while also saving over 1,100 gallons of water per day through their recapture system.
The medley in this section promotes a healthy food web and draws in pollinators that will assist the vegetable garden. To build sustainable soil structure with plenty of bacteria, fungi and protozoa, we made compost by processing kitchen scraps in a tumbler. When the compost is mature, we mix it with dirt when planting.
And in a region where many residents suffer from diet-related illnesses and do not have easy access to grocery stores selling fresh foods, Patrick offers vegetable boxes through a community supported agriculture (CSA) program, as well as by producing hemp-derived CBD products meant to reduce chronic pain by holistic, non-pharmaceutical methods.
Next, they purchased a no-drill seeder together, and it allowed them to plant rows of grain directly into orchards and pastures without tilling, a practice known to benefit the soil. We see Walmart or shitty food or HelloFresh as competition—not each other.” We don’t see each other as competition in any meaningful way. What is that?
It’s a great gateway crop,” says Don DiLillo, owner of Finest Foods in Huntington, New York, for ushering in a new breed of novice farmers. Photography submitted by Don DiLillo, Finest Foods. Photography submitted by Don DiLillo, Finest Foods. Plus, he adds, “I can do farm chores in my pajamas.”
Robb sees his work of coaxing beneficial fungi back into the soil, which he largely learned from an online program called the Soil Food Web School , as both a challenge to mainstream agriculture and as a way forward to restore agricultural soils. But working to both protect and encourage fungi on farms is a way to reverse course.
It’a not just because it’s cheaper and not just because Capay Hills Orchard , his farm just north of Sacramento, is in an area of California that is increasingly drought-prone. There are sheep grazing between the trees, cover crops of grasses and legumes, spot irrigation and increased composting. Sheep grazing in almond groves.
Today, new generations of innovative farmers see agroforestry as a solution to not just producing nutrient-dense food and specialty crops but to also mitigate the intensity of climate change-induced weather events. The Joia Food & Fiber Farm farmstead pictured with sheep, sheepdogs, and cattle grazing. Johnson laughs.
When they purchased the farm over 30 years ago it was an unproductive almond orchard and since then they have pulled the almonds out and utilized the sloped landscape to construct swales, establish a vineyard, and plant a wide variety of fruit trees which provide shelter while their flock of ducks grazes.
To make it as a small farm and to affect real, lasting change in our food system, it requires unwavering determination, hard work, ingenuity, and a deeply rooted sense of purpose with a view extending a thousand growing seasons. But with heart a’plenty, that’s exactly what the the Mendo-Lake Food Hub is doing.
Their neighbors’ operations include vineyards, orchards, grain and vegetables. The collective currently shares two mid-sized combine harvesters, one mini-combine harvester, a compost spreader, two seed cleaners, a berm flamer, a no-till drill, and a foliar spray trailer. Now, every farmer in the collective uses compost.
Today, the four counties sitting in the lake bed account for more than $25 billion in food and crop production, with Tulare County ranking number one in the nation for milk and oranges. Despite competing for land and water, the region’s orchards and milk farms have developed an unlikely partnership, says Sumner.
Mountain ranges trap emissions from highway traffic, locomotives, municipal composting facilities, tractors, and burning. Citing the difficulty of securing a burn permit in recent years, McIsaac’s operations have turned to chipping orchard residue, which is more expensive than burning. The practice reduces PM2.5
Christine Gemperle, almond farmer and CalCAN advisor recently drove to Sacramento from her orchard in Ceres to testify in support of equipment sharing and sustainable agriculture investments alongside CalCAN staff. Christine provided testimony in support of both of these CalCAN co-sponsored bills.
On a sunny afternoon in September 2021, Michael Langford was moving compost with his compact John Deere. Most of the rollovers in Washington occurred on crop farms, including the state’s signature apple orchards. Suddenly, the 53-year-old felt a tire slip under him. “I I felt the tractor tilting over,” Langford recalls.
At Civil Eats, we immerse ourselves in food and agriculture books throughout the year to deepen our knowledge, stay up to date, and produce robust coverage of the books making an impact in the food and ag space. Become a member today and you’ll get the next issue in your inbox, as well as a number of other benefits.
At the apple orchard where I used to work, autumn’s encroaching frenzy had the most unassuming harbinger. That lonely tree stood apart from the rest of the orchard—its companions had long since died—as a sentinel from a bygone era. full_link READ MORE Learn how the resurgence of hard cider is restoring old apple orchards.
The impact of the Israel-Gaza war on food and farming is one aspect of a complex situation that we seek to reveal in this piece by our Head of Policy and Campaigns, Megan Perry. According to the World Food Programme , the Gaza Strip could surpass famine thresholds of food insecurity, malnutrition and mortality in six weeks.
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